Ashes 2019: Steve Smith makes England pay after no-ball reprieve at Old Trafford

Steve Smith scored his third century of this Ashes series and is approaching a double hundred with Australia 369-5 at tea on day two of the fourth Test at Old Trafford.

SCORECARD | AS IT HAPPENED

The former Australia captain is unbeaten on 173 heading into the final session of day two but England will know that he should have departed for 118 shortly after lunch having edged Jack Leach to slip, only for Smith to be reprieved when replays showed the bowler had overstepped.

It was the first no-ball Leach has bowled in international cricket and it proved a costly one.

For all that, England’s bowlers were much improved on their efforts from the first day, showing far greater intensity and purpose, before lunch at least, but they were unable to oust Smith and he completed his 26th Test hundred late in the morning session.

Stuart Broad had removed Travis Head early on before Leach dismissed Matthew Wade, but Smith remained and, having been gifted a second chance, shared an unbroken stand of 145 with Tim Paine (58no) to set Australia on their way to a commanding first-innings total.

The tourists started the day on 170-3 but Smith, resuming on 60, was unusually scratchy in the early exchanges, prodding at deliveries in the channel outside off and then hitting a low full toss back at Jofra Archer, who could only get his fingertips to it as he tried to take the return catch.

Head saw little of the strike and, when he did, it did not take long for Broad to send him on his way, attacking from around the wicket as he has done so successfully to the left-handers throughout the series and trapping him lbw.

Archer was beginning to crank up the pace as well, topping 90mph for the first time in the match, but Smith had overcome his initial jitters and held firm and, when the players returned following a brief stoppage for rain, the fast bowler was replaced at the James Anderson End.

The breakthrough came from the other end, though, as Wade tried to take on Leach and, having hit the left-arm spinner over wide mid-on for four just before the delay, he attempted to repeat the trick. However, he failed to get to the pitch of the ball and sent it high into the gloomy Manchester sky with Joe Root underneath it at mid-on as it came back down.

Smith moved into the nineties and, after a couple of slightly nervy moments against Leach, he whipped the ball into the legside for two off Craig Overton to reach yet another century five minutes before lunch.

The ton was Smith’s 11th in Ashes cricket but he should not have gone much further. The 30-year-old right-hander had looked more frenzied than usual at the crease after lunch and had already had a moment of fortune when he skied the ball high into the offside off Leach, only for it to drop perfectly in the gap between two fielders, prior to edging the spinner to slip.

It was a slightly wider delivery from Leach, tempting the drive and Smith fell right into the trap and nicked it to Ben Stokes. The umpires wanted to check for the no-ball but Smith was halfway off the field before seeing the replay on the big screen, no part of Leach’s boot was behind the line and England’s big wicket turned out to be nothing of the sort.

Smith returned to the middle and for the remainder of the session he and Paine, who was dropped by Jason Roy off Broad on nine, added to England’s misery. With the bowling attack appearing increasingly weary, the runs flowed and when Stokes left the field with a sore shoulder and without completing his 11th over, they were briefly a man down too.

Smith went past 150 for the eighth time in Tests and Paine made it to his sixth Test fifty – but only after he had been dropped for a second time, on 49 by substitute fielder Sam Curran after pulling Archer to mid-on.

Attention will now turn to if and when Australia may look to declare in the evening session and give themselves a chance to try and get stuck into England’s vulnerable top order.

Watch continued live coverage of the fourth Test at Old Trafford on Sky Sports The Ashes.

(c) Sky Sports 2019: Ashes 2019: Steve Smith makes England pay after no-ball reprieve at Old Trafford